CERAMICS PROGRAM BRINGS ART STUDENT HOME

Kate Vincent, art student, works on her ceramic projects.

Photo by Fletcher Wold / the Advocate

The uniqueness of Mt. Hood’s art program is largely due to the talented artists in the program. Each student brings hard work, individuality, and talent into the classroom. In return, they get an encouraging space where they can grow and produce as artists.

Perhaps that is what drew Kate Vincent to continue her education at MHCC after earning her first art degree.

Vincent, 29, is a third-year student at Mt. Hood. Her journey with art began at the young age of 2, while growing up at a small farm in Troutdale. She loved to draw at first, and then moved through to painting at age 3. As an adult, she decided to pursue an art degree in New Zealand, but that school did not have a ceramics course.

Eventually Vincent found MHCC’s ceramics program and decided to complete her art education. Asked why she chose Mt. Hood, she points out the style of the art department, saying, “You just don’t get this anywhere else.” The collection of smaller studio buildings in the art department, just off the main Academic Center wing, sport a rustic aesthetic and look inviting and homey.

Along with sculpting, firing, and working with clay, Vincent especially enjoys screen printing. Her favorite styles of art are anatomical (centered on the human body) or nature themes. She said she enjoys finding beauty in things that others might not find necessarily beautiful.

Vincent has had some of her art displayed in galleries. One of her favorite pieces is a ceramic sculpture which shows the torso of a woman. On one side is her skeleton, and on the other side is her body’s exterior.

The artist wants her art to make people think. To her, the piece says, “Everyone has a skeleton. How different are we, really?”

Vincent would encourage everyone to try some form of art: “Get involved! It’s therapeutic (and) you will find something” that was missing in your life, she said.

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